Thursday, 28 August 2014

Last week I had a wicked time at Galtres Festival,
hoe-downing to The Levellers, dancing along to Holy Moly &
The Crackers, singing along to The Franceens, giggling
thanks to John Otway and grooving to the Human League. I also had the privilege of programming
spoken word/poetry and comedy/stand-up for the Snapping Turtle and Little Top
stages.

I use the word ‘privilege’ not to mean ‘honour’, but rather
a sense of power.

I am armed with many tools of privilege. I’m a white male, born in the UK, from a
working class family but never fell into poverty. I’m hetrosexual and cisgender, though adhere
to queer theory and don’t believe in gender binaries. My school wasn’t great, but it was still gave
me a good enough education allowing me to use the system to eventually get a
degree from a red brick university.

So many other people have spoken much more passionately
and articulately about the issue. Check
out Jay
The Nerd Kid, for example.

To say: “I don’t
walk into a room and see gender, ability or colour, I see human beings” if such
a problematic statement. It is complete
erasure of people’s experiences, treatment by society & patriarchy, struggles,
representation in the media and opportunities.
The same goes for poets, comedians, bands, musicians etc. Saying “I just book acts I want not based on
gender/colour” as if even acknowledging
gender or colour or disability would somehow be sexist/racist/transphobic/ableist.

Some argue to give artists a platform just because of their
colour or gender is unfair, and that every artist should be judged based on
their skill. Of course quality control
has to be a factor, I’d be a hypocrite if I said I don’t consider this. But there is an abundance of quality POC,
female, trans, queer and disabled poets on the scene, and of course the more
these artists are given a platform the more it encourages other people to try
their hand at writing, reading and performing.

At York Theatre Royal, I programme a night called Words
& Whippets. In 2013 we had 6 acts
(including myself). This was split 50/50
male and female. For W&W 2014 we had
5 acts, 2 women and 3 men. Galtres
Festival had 12 acts, and 5 of them were women.
Unfortunately several female comedians had to pull out of the comedy
stage, so in the end we only had a single female comedian. However the slam we ran was all-female. I put on Hannah Nicklin’s solo show earlier
this year, with 3 female acts, and 2 male acts (including myself). Myself and Stu Freestone are putting on a new regular slam called Say Owt Slam. The first event is 28th October, and we have gone for a very safe choice in Mark Grist as a headline act to help raise the profile with a well-known act. But I'm keen as part of our platform, once the event has been established, to book a variety of acts from across the UK from the LBGTQ, Black, Disabled communities and scenes.

I’m not saying we need to pat ourselves on the back, and neither
do we beat ourselves up. I’m not saying
I’m a hero, nor a failure, because there’s no way to get it right/wrong. But it’s always worth thinking about. It’s an issue that needs considering and
evaluating. I am very grateful to have
so many awesome feminist
and queer friends I can
learn from.

Always check your privilege. Check your perspective, check your place in
the world, check how you are assuming how the world works. If you are a promoter, check your acts, check
your line-ups, how you run events. All I
can do is ask you to at least consider it, for the moment. But if real social change needs to happen
then the next stage is to change it. Deeds not words!